There is hardly a day I can think of where Zip did not surprise me in one way or another. Last night, I saw Zip creeping slowly atop a massive mound of snow at 1 a.m. as this severe storm was thinking of easing up,

I laughed and said Zip was not sleeping or hiding out in the barn as I might have expected. He was hunting something; the heavy snow, ice, and rain did not slow him down or bother him.  He is a loving thing but a wild thing.

The puzzle may have been solved this morning when Maria went into the barn to feed him while I was in the shower.

He always rushes out of somewhere when he knows he’s being fed, but this time, he didn’t show up. Maria waited a bit and then heard some rustling in the direction of the tires we stacked when it was time to get or switch snow tires.

She called his name and went closer to the rustle.

It was coming from the tire. Zip popped his head up while she grabbed her iPhone. He ducked in and out. She took a closer look, and there was a dead creature in the tire, which he was using as a fox den or even a sleeping retreat and secret stash. It’s very warm in there, says Maria; the rubber tire retains heat. That cat is something else.

___

I was fortunate to look at one of the wood stoves and see Bud’s reflection in the glass window. He loves to sleep near that stove on cold days; I think the furnace likes him back. The photo was neat.

Like most Labs, Zinnia loves to come along for the ride. She sits in the back seat, and when we went into the farmer’s market today, I always left the rear window open.

She is impervious to cold. It was freezing this morning in the wake of the storm. Zinnia never barks or moves; she rests her chin on the window will and waits for us to return. She feels much emotion but never shows it. She is the biological opposite of Zip, a whirling dervish.

I thought the photo captured her great calm.